In conventional sets of metal wood golf clubs, each club includes a shaft with a club head attached to one end and a grip attached to the other end. The club head includes a face for striking a golf ball. The angle between the face and a vertical plane is called “loft.” The set may include multiple clubs of varying loft. Each metal wood has a length that usually decreases through the set as the loft angle for each club head increases.
The length of the club, along with the club head loft and center of gravity impart various performance characteristics to the ball's launch conditions upon impact. For example, a low loft angle club will result in a lower trajectory of the golf ball flight, which typically results in a greater overall distance. Alternatively, a high loft angle club will result in a higher initial trajectory, and typically less overall distance when compared to a lower loft angle club. In certain conditions, such as high winds, it is advantageous for the golfer to use a lower loft angle club to keep the golf ball flight path low and out of the wind. In other conditions, such as hard or dry conditions, the golfer may want to control the distance of the shot by using a club with a high loft angle, which typically results in less roll.
Metal wood golf clubs have previously been designed by keeping the top line fixed and extending the leading edge out or in to change the loft. While this process provides an easy way of manufacturing a set of metal woods, it results in a varied impact point with respect to the shaft axis from club to club. Thus, the golfer must adapt his/her swing and approach to the ball for each club in the set.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a set of metal wood golf clubs that produce a substantially constant impact point relative to the shaft axis throughout the set. The present invention seeks to address this need in the art.